I love burlesque. The sparkle, wit and sexiness are an intoxicating mixture, but the First Annual Seafair Follies show fell flat—a true disappointment considering the other delightful performances involving the Swedish Housewife.
First off, rape is not comical. While one may expect the single gratuitous “rape and pillage” joke from a pirate mc, it is an entirely different matter when every other joke is about rape. Vaudeville and burlesque have always had a salacious side to them that pushed the social norms. Yet, continued rape references shifts the production from tawdry to plain demeaning and distasteful while showing a complete lack of ingenuity and wit. Burlesque is a sexually charged venue that empowers women (and men) to be comfortable with themselves and their sexuality with a veneer of quick wit. The repeated jokes about the ultimate violation of women debased the performers and the audience and razed the entire idea of sexy power.
Secondly, this show was advertised with the fun twist of inviting guests to dress up in costumes “to win prizes and the prestigious year long title of Royal Sea Urchin.” Instead, this was a ploy best described as the Royal Fixed Urchin. I, and several others in the audience, was shocked at how blatant the fix was in this contest. The girl who won was wearing a blue leotard with a red anchor sewn to it, red shoes, and a white flower in her hair. It was the kind of costume a dance teacher picks for the annual recital of 10 year olds. This banal costume beat out a woman who cleverly attached trash to a tutu and a seagull to her head to embody sea trash and what I can only be described as an intricately, sexy pirate costume complete with miniature pirate ship attached to her hat. Why invite the audience to dress-up if there is no intention of having an actual competition. Such ploys only breed discord in the audience and create the sort of bad taste that makes people decline to attend another show. With all the rape jokes, it’s surprising Captain Bloodbeard didn’t mention the ultimate rape of fairness that occurred with the giving of the title to the least imaginative costume there.
I hope if this show has a second annual production next year, clever humor is incorporated and fairness returns to the competition.
Laurel S. Barton
Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer... More by Christopher Frizzelle
I was with Laurel all the way to “the ultimate rape of fairness…”. Still, though, I give her props speaking up for civilization.
“I said ‘GOOD DAY TO YOU’, sir!!”
Why would you even point out where this person is employed?
Professionally, I feel he has few scruples, @3
See:
http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/08/clea…
Which is worse: inappropriate rape jokes or inappropriate rape analogies?
Though it does sound shocking beyond belief that they didn’t give a big prize to the woman with garbage stuck all over her.
Pics? Or it isn’t true.
@3 — Oh, because originally I had a thing in there about the boilerplate at the bottom of the letter saying that the contents of the letter were “confidential” and “attorney-client privileged,” because I sorta thought it was funny coming after all this costume-contest-equals-rape invective, but when I responded to the email she quickly wrote back to say it was meant for publication and I took that aside out. I forgot to take out the set-up for that that I’d written into the headline. Fixed now.
@6 ftw. Cause if it didn’t happen on the Net, it didn’t happen.
Right?
I have no idea what the fuck this chick is babbling about.
Well, reading only this one side of things, I’d say SeaFair ought to be moved to Harbor Island. But, well, I never go to SeaFair anyway,.. so I hope they get their sh*t together for the sake of culture in general.
Google says this person’s been sending whatnot like this to local editors for years. Sometimes the P-I prints one. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people…how dare the Port of Seattle not put up Christmas trees…modern students are lazy whiners…why are malls afraid of Easter Bunny displays…
Guns don’t kill people.
A mechanism connecting a person’s trigger finger to the firing pin that ignites the bullet’s propulsive gases and projects a bullet kills people.
The gun is just an innocent bystander.
Just 2cents from the gal who didn’t win that contest.. (the one dressed as the great pacific garbage patch…) I would never, ever suggest that true rape is funny…. never… but that uber-raunchy pirate comedian from NYC was obviously more interested in raping large men and small dogs than women… so I think none of us should live in fear here… as he was no taller than I (unless you are a small dog) and Laurel dear… it was the cheers from the audience and the “Applausometer” that got that Lala and Rich Longfellow into the runoff round to compete against me, the winner from the night before… while I did find my costume to be far more clever… as were others as well… her enthusiasm for the title was genuinely refreshing and I think she will carry on as Royal Sea Urchin swimmingly… especially if she hires me to create her next costume… sometimes enthusiasm does win out over talent…. I’ve never been one to want a public title (and in another conflict of interest… I work for moisture festival which had judges in the crew) , but I’m a slut for a crown! I guess just I’ll have to make myself one out of sea debris.
Well, I’m usually one to call out rape jokes as not funny. But the whole tone of this letter seems just a bit too… earnest. It was a burlesque show, after all.
@13……thank you for the explanation and for being a rare sane voice.
http://www.joecasaletto.com/jokes/rodney…
@13 – if I were someone who hugged strangers, I would hug you. Please accept these virtual, non-creepy hug vibes instead.
what do 9 out of 10 people enjoy?
gang rape.
@7 I hate that fucking boilerplate. Its one of the dumber internet trends I have seen and I lose a bit of respect for anyone who uses it.
I was there. The pirate was rapey, but funny. Lauren needs to unwad her panties.
Rape is a horrible thing.
But all horrible things are acceptable in humor. We can make fun of 9/11, racism, the holocaust, cannibals, child abusing priests, etc.
These are all horrible things but we can make fun of them. Just like rape. At times ANY joke can be in poor taste, but entire categories can’t just be off limits.
Go to hell Laurel! You don’t get to decide what is comedy and what isn’t for everyone else.
+A girl walks into a rape, uh bar…
Bad analogies rape my brain too.
Chick who won was Mudude in drag.
Rape can be funny, everything has some level of humor to it. Murder is worse than rape and people make fun of it all the time, and it can be really funny.
I like to stay away from rape jokes because people that have been raped usually don’t recover. But I have some friends that have been raped that can joke about rape, they figured something out.
@24 “I like to stay away from rape jokes because people that have been raped usually don’t recover.”
…as compared to the recovery rate from murder.
@25 Well with murder the victims are not around to care.
Dear Laurel,
I would like to extend to you an invitation to be one of the judges for next years “Royal Sea Urchin” Contest, that is if you can tolerate Captain Bloodbeard, as he will be back to host the show again next year.
Please contact me at paula@swedishhousewife.com if you are interested in this offer. Thank you for supporting LIVE entertainment!!!
Kindest Regards,
Paula The Swedish Housewife